Billy Elliot (2000)
Directed by Stephen Daldry
County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.
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What critics compared Billy Elliot to
Directed with fittingly broad strokes by Dexter Fletcher, “Eddie the Eagle” may or may not become another “Billy Elliot,” but it ought to mark Egerton (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”) as an actor worth watching.
Actually, though, in movie terms, Eddie the Eagle is almost exactly like that: if “Billy Elliot on skies” was not part of the pitch meeting, I can’t imagine what else got the greenlight for this almost entirely fictional biopic of the unlikely English ski-jumper, who exploited the loophole of no actual British ski-jumping team existing, then finished dead last as a goofy crowd favorite.
The script is peppered with on-the-nose comparisons to previous underdogs, especially the bobsled shenanigans of Cool Runnings and Billy Elliot's yearning.
There's a long and successful strain of British films about unlikely outcasts following their dreams, including Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot, where a coal-miner's son pursues a passion for ballet, and Eddie the Eagle neatly sets up the familiar dynamic of parental doubt and wider disbelief.
I can only compare the intense outpouring of emotion from these scenes to a late sequence in Billy Elliot , bidding farewell to his own nan with him, ready to pursue his ballet dream.
Screenwriter David Hare (Plenty, Wetherby) and director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot) appear to be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the themes and ideas being stroked here.
Stephen Daldry ("Eight"/"The Hours"/"Billy Elliot") directs the morose and mostly lifeless drama with great craftsmanship, while photographers Chris Menges and Roger Deakins paint a stylish looking maroonish post-Holocaust look on a Germany that still hasn't settled matters for its second and third generation citizens on its foul deeds of the past by its first generation.
Director Stephen Daldry's first two films ("Billy Elliot," "The Hours") both received multiple Oscar nominations, and this one is attracting some lead-in awards attention, mostly for Winslet.
Like The Hours and his debut film Billy Elliot , he has crafted another film to savor.
Stephen Daldry has directed two very different feature films, “Billy Elliot” and “The Hours,” and earned Oscar nominations for both of them.
Director Stephen Daldry ("Billy Elliot," "The Hours") shifts among three points in time to explore the destructive yet enduring relationship.
A plot of sorts develops as they try arranging an exchange while dealing with sidebar issues involving first love, getting to a popular school mate’s party and realising a stereotype-breaking dream, Billy Elliot -style.
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But by casting Holland, a British actor who once danced as Billy Elliot , we have the Spidey of the selfie generation.
SXSW Review: 'Sing Street' Plays Like 'Once' Meets 'Billy Elliot'…
“Happy Feet” was sort of a penguin’s version of “Billy Elliot”, making the case that there’s nothing wrong with a boy wanting to dance.
Brief stops at the funky, magical Weasley abode, the Burrow (well inhabited by Billy Elliot's Julie Walters, 101 Dalmatians' Mark Williams and -- in a limited but pivotal role -- young Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley) plus the creepy, gothed-out Knockturn Alley keep both Harry and us on our toes.
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The notable supporting players are Broadbent as the colorfully corrupt Tweed, Cara Seymour ("American Psycho") as Hellcat Maggie and Gary Lewis ("Billy Elliot") as McGloin, a particularly racist member of Bill's gang.